The Lenawee County Road Commission spent more than $100,000 to push back snow that fell in last weekend's winter storm.

"Let's hope it doesn't snow any more," operations manager Jason Schnaidt told the road commission board on Thursday. Cleaning up after the snowstorm cost $101,299 by the end of the day Monday, leaving $130,000 in the winter maintenance budget for the rest of this year.

The budget for the year that begins Jan. 1 has a fresh $900,000 for winter maintenance.

The timing of last week's storm meant paying overtime for Saturday and Sunday. Drivers then put in a 12-hour work day on Monday, said Schnaidt.

"Actually, that's cheap compared to what it could have been," said road commissioner Robert Emery. If there had been strong winds after the storm, he said, drifting snow would have created much more work to clear the roads.

Emery commended snowplow drivers for opening main roads last weekend.

"They did a great job," he said.

Most of the work has to be done after a storm is over, Emery said.

"There's no way we can keep ahead of a 6-inch snowfall and keep the roads really nice," he said.

Schnaidt said a night crew went on duty after midnight on Saturday, Dec. 14, and a full crew worked from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. that day during the storm. Drivers worked from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. the next day, he said, then returned at 3 a.m. Monday and worked a 12-hour shift to finish plowing open local roads and subdivisions.

Two pickups with snowblades were put to work in subdivisions around Adrian last weekend as part of a new procedure, said managing director Scott Merillat.

"They did what we thought they could do," Merillat said. The pickups were not able to scrape to bare pavement and the blades are narrower than those on the large trucks, he said. But the subdivision streets were opened while the regular plows were working on main roads.

"The option is to use the pickups or wait until the big trucks are available," he said.

Large snowplows went through the subdivision streets on Monday after main roads were cleared, he said.